The Right Opinion – February 23rd, 2012

– It’s the 23rd of February. I’m about ready for winter to be over. Even though the winter is far less harsh here, my road bikes are calling me and so are the Rocky Mountains.

– I think I’ve commented on this before, but could you live through the United States political system? The four remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have been battling it out for almost 2 years.

– I’ll be voting in my fourth election in less than two years when Albertans go to the polls this spring. I’m actually looking forward to it.

– Working at a big radio station has its benefits. Last night I had Thomas Lukaszuk the Minister of Education and Manmeet Bhullar the Minister of Service Alberta on the air. Both were excellent guests.

– I guess it’s official.

Do you get the feeling Charlize Theron’s license photo is bad? Why the hell won’t they let you smile? I know I’m far better looking than that picture.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

* Mr. Prime Minister.

Let them shiver in the cold.

If the EU doesn’t want our coal, let them rely on conflict coal from the Middle East. It’s been a long cold winter in Europe.

The EU’s so-called fuel-quality directive — part of Europe’s attempts to reduce CO2 emissions by encouraging the use of cleaner fuel — ranks fuels based on their overall carbon footprint. It calculates a fuel’s entire life cycle of emissions, then assigns it a number.

Under the directive, Canadian oil derived from oilsands would get a higher number than conventional oil because it uses more energy to extract and refine.The fuel quality directive would make Alberta’s main export more expensive for European customers. Canada doesn’t export much oil to Europe, but could in the future.

A memo leaked to Green Car Reports lays out GE’s plans for their new fleet of Volts, and as expected, it has some people crying foul.

The memo, sent to employees of GE Healthcare Americas team explains that all sedan, crossover, and minivan purchases in 2012 will be replaced by the Chevy Volt. Only field engineers are exempt from having to drive a company Volt.

Tesla Motors’ lineup of all-electric vehicles — its existing Roadster, almost certainly its impending Model S, and possibly its future Model X — apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle. If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a “brick”: a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street.

* Talk about straight talk.

Christie comes off as too moderate at times, but he is devilishly clever and vicious at times. This is brilliant.

Another.

* Hope for change.

Today on ‘Deep Cuts & Lost Classics’… I’d like to play the full track, but it’s 50 minutes in length (both sides of the album) If you have a chance, pick up Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and listen to it in the dark. Here’s the single that was released. Sound familiar? It’s the music from The Exorcist.